The Brooklyn Brawler
| birth_place = Brooklyn, New York | death_date = | death_place = | resides = Miami, Florida | billed= Brooklyn, New York | trainer = | debut = 1983 | retired = }} Steve Lombardi (April 18, 1961) is an Italian-American professional wrestler and road agent. He is also known by his ring name Brooklyn Brawler. He is best known for his time with WWE as a road agent. World Wrestling Federation / Entertainment / WWE 1980s Lombardi began his WWF career in late 1983, competing under his real name and being used primarily as an enhancement talent until early 1989, when he was repackaged as The Brooklyn Brawler. The Brawler character was that of a street fighter, wearing battered jeans and torn New York Yankees T-shirts. Under the tutelage of Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, the Brawler entered a feud with The Red Rooster. When The Rooster left Heenan's villain group and became a fan favorite, Heenan stated that he had made The Rooster a star and could do the same with anyone in the Federation. The Rooster defeated The Brawler on Saturday Night's Main Event and then Heenan at WrestleMania V. The Brawler's alliance with Heenan was then phased out and he returned to his former enhancement talent status (retaining the Brawler gimmick), a role he would remain in throughout the early 1990s. 1990s Lombardi was used in a number of gimmicks, often masked. In late 1993 early 1994, he briefly replaced Matt Borne as Doink the Clown until Ray Apollo was hired. He also regularly portrayed Kim Chee (Kamala's handler) during his 1986-87 and 1992 stints with the WWF and briefly in 1993 as a singles wrestler after Kamala left him for the newly ordained Reverend Slick. He still regularly used the Brooklyn Brawler gimmick during this period. He also played MVP (Most Valuable Player) (a short-lived baseball player gimmick) in 1993 between his stints as Kim Chee and Doink. The only match he wrestled as MVP was a Battle Royal in which the last two wrestlers in the ring would go on to compete for the WWF Intercontinental Championship, but he was eliminated half-way through the match. He would use the baseball player gimmick again, but this time as a heel, as Abe "Knuckleball" Schwartz a year later during the 1994 Major League Baseball strike),. As MVP and Abe "Knuckleball" Schwartz, Lombardi's face was painted to look like a baseball and he wore a jersey with the number 00. In addition, he was accompanied to the ring by a carnival-like version of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." He also briefly competed as the Red Knight as part of a jobber tag team with the Black Knight (Barry Horowitz) Since the late 1990s, he has been semi-retired from the ring, working mostly as a road agent for WWF and only occasionally appearing in the ring, usually for comic skits and matches. Lombardi lost to Dwayne Johnson, who would later become The Rock, in Johnson's WWF tryout match on March 10, 1996. Johnson later recalled the match in his autobiography; praising Lombardi as a stand-up wrestler. Lombardi and Johnson faced off again on the February 28, 2000 taping of Raw is War as part of a storyline where The Rock was sent "back to the bottom of the ladder". Lombardi lost this match as well. While semi-retired, the Brooklyn Brawler appeared on the independent wrestling scene, managing the Flying Stirpe Brothers Lou and Rob. Although they achieved little success, they will always be remembered for wreaking havoc and throwing uncooked pasta at the crowd. Despite his status as enhancement talent, Lombardi had some big wins and title shots. In 1991 the Brooklyn Brawler entered into a small feud with new WWF star Big Bully Busick after the Brawler challenged Busick to match to see who the real bully of the WWF was. The Brawler defeated the Bully by countout and in a rematch one week later saw the Brawler dominate the Bully until the latter's manager Harvey Wippleman grabbed the Brawler's leg, leading to a controversial win for the Bully. On October 4, 1993 Lombardi also competed in the WWF Intercontinental title Battle Royal (as The M.V.P.). In 1997, he won a battle royal for a WWF Championship match in Madison Square Garden; he went on to face then-WWF champion Shawn Michaels, but was defeated. On the September 20, 1999 episode of Raw is War, Lombardi was one of the replacement referees while the original referees were on story line strike. In 2000, he scored a pinfall against then-World Champion Triple H in a non-title handicap match and a rare singles victory over Just Joe on an episode of WWE Jakked. 2000s As part of an angle on SmackDown!, he adopted the moniker of the "Boston Brawler," shedding his customary New York Yankees apparel in favor of Boston Red Sox clothing. This was done in response to the Red Sox' defeat of the Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series, which propelled the Sox to their World Series victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. Lombardi did this in a segment on SmackDown! (in New York City) with Heidenreich. Heidenreich was looking to make more friends, but Lombardi decided he'd rather be the Boston Brawler. Heidenreich stopped wanting to be Lombardi's friend, which aided Heidenreich's ongoing face turn. He once again appeared as Kamala's handler Kim Chee at WrestleMania X-Seven and competed in the gimmick battle royal. This was his first on camera Wrestlemania match. (he competed in dark matches at Wrestlemania VI and WrestleMania VII) In early 2006, he still worked behind the scenes of WWE, including behind the camera with John Cena on his WWE.com show "5 Questions". Cena often makes references to Lombardi, even jokingly calling him the greatest technical wrestler of all time. Also, his face popped up in front of Cena's mouth to censor curse words, usually saying "Nu-Uh!" or "Brawler!". On the June 2, 2006 episode of Five Questions, Brawler showed his face. He even censored himself, saying "YOU are a piece of Brawler". In another episode of "5 Questions," Cena acknowledged that Lombardi was actually born in Detroit, and not in Brooklyn. On May 7, 2006, WWE.com announced that, as part of Jakks Pacific's WWE Classic Superstars collection, they would be releasing a Brooklyn Brawler action figure. At Vengeance, Brawler appeared as Doink the Clown when he came out to the ring with Eugene during Eugene's match with Umaga. On August 1, 2006, Lombardi went to the ECW brand for a match against then ECW wrestler, Kurt Angle. Lombardi quickly lost when Angle applied an ankle lock on him. That same week, he appeared on SmackDown! against Vito, losing by submission. On the December 18 edition of Raw, Lombardi appeared in the 30 Man Battle Royal as the Brooklyn Brawler. He reprised his role as Kim Chee, having apparently reconciled with Kamala, on the August 11, 2005 edition of RAW accompanying the Ugandan Giant to the ring for his match with Randy Orton. He would also appear with him on the June 26, 2006 episode for Kamala's match against Umaga On the May 5, 2007 edition of SmackDown!, Lombardi made an appearance backstage in his Brooklyn Brawler persona, waiting in line for interviews to become SmackDown! General Manager Theodore Long's assistant. On the 15th anniversary of Raw on December 10, 2007, Lombardi appeared as Abe "Knuckleball" Schwartz in a segment. When Triple H saw him, he exclaimed "I guess the Brooklyn Brawler was busy tonight". Later that night he competed in the 15th anniversary Battle Royal as Doink. 2010s Lombardi made a return appearance in the November 15, 2010 "Raw Goes Old School" episode of Raw as the Brooklyn Brawler with Harvey Wippleman as his manager. He lost in a match against Ezekiel Jackson. The Brooklyn Brawler made a surprise return to pay-per-view on December 16, 2012 at the TLC pay-per-view (which took place in Brooklyn), teaming with The Miz and Alberto Del Rio to defeat 3MB (Heath Slater, Drew McIntyre and Jinder Mahal). Brawler won the match for his team via submission with a Boston crab on Mahal. At the July 15, 2013 Raw taping from Brooklyn, in a match taped for ''Superstars'', Brawler was defeated by Ryback. In wrestling *'Finishing moves' **''Sidewalk Smash'' **Superplex **Swinging neckbreaker *'Managers' **Bobby Heenan **Dink the Clown **Harvey Wippleman *'Wrestlers managed' **Kamala Championships and accomplishments *'Border City Wrestling' **BCW Can-Am Heavyweight Championship (1 time) **BCW Can-Am Television Championship (1 time) *'NWA Michigan' **NWA Michigan Heavyweight Championship (1 time) See also *Brooklyn Brawler's event history King of the Ring 1985- Les Thornton defeated Steve Lombardi External links * Brooklyn Brawler profile * Brooklyn Brawler profile Category:American wrestlers Category:Border City Wrestling alumni Category:National Wrestling Alliance alumni Category:Pro Wrestling Xtreme alumni Category:World Wrestling Entertainment alumni Category:1961 births Category:1983 debuts Category:Masked Wrestlers Category:Super World Sports alumni Category:United States Wrestling Association alumni Category:World Wrestling Alliance alumni Category:New York wrestlers Category:Living people Category:Male wrestlers Category:Jobbers